Poilievre's wardrobe malfunctions and other tall tales
It'd be nice if people stopped lying for a hot minute.
It’s not every day that I have to go and analyze a spreadsheet so, someone will have to pay for my pain. I nominate Pierre Poilievre because it’s his fault. He shouldn’t be lying like that.
It’s true that unemployment for young people is extraordinarily high. I own a few teenagers myself. I am aware of the issue. And it may be that the TFW program does need reviewing; I’m not an expert even though I know more about it than the average politician given how many legal articles I’ve had to write about the reforms well-intentioned people say the program needs.
Leave our respective levels of expertise aside, the thing that bugs me royally is Poilievre claiming the program is a thing for corporate global elites. Or even grubby old multinationals. It’s just not true.
If you click on this link, you’ll find the list of employers who received a positive labour market impact assessment in the first three months of 2025. WARNING: IT CONTAINS A FREAKING EXCEL SPREADSHEET AND THOSE ARE VERY PAINFUL. AT ANY RATE I HATE THEM. SORRY FOR SHOUTING.
If you feel brave, click on the link and download the beast. Then look at the looooong list of employers in Canada who received positive LMIAs, which are required to hire TFWs. See? I’m fighting back with acronyms. But you’re smart and you’re following.
Look at the list of names and see how many multinationals you recognize. Look at the column listing the number of TFWs required. What’s the proportion of employers needing a handful, compared to, I don’t know, hundreds?
For every corporate elite bigwig who presumably nobs their hob with former central bank governors on that list, how many small or medium businesses?
Now ask yourself this: If you’re the owner of Anne of Green Gables Chocolates Inc. in Charlottetown, PEI and apply to hire a handful of TFWs to work as “labourers in food and beverage processing,” presumably because despite your best efforts you can’t find anyone local to fill those positions, do you feel like being blamed for the national youth unemployment rate or do you instead feel a little bit aggrieved to be thrown under the bus by a clueless Poilievre who thinks he can score points with low-information xenophobes behind their Grok-encrusted keyboards?
And while we’re here slamming the newly re-elected leader of the opposition, can someone please curse him with endless hot flashes for thinking that women over 50 (hi) are so superficial that we’ll overlook everything if Poilievre changes shirts?
As a 54-year-old non-superficial high-information voter of the female-presenting persuasion (though one who identifies as non-binary), I have two words for Pierre Poilievre and they are not “Merry Christmas.”
His problem with older women is his Trumpian positions and aggressive tone. If he thinks he’ll get their vote by insulting their intelligence on top of that, he’s going to get his ass handed to him again but in a bucket this time.